Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, chairman of the House Ways and Means Education Committee, answers questions about the budget after the committee approved it on March 12, 2014 at the Alabama State House. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com)

The $5.9 billion budget, which spends slightly more on K-12 schools and universities than this year’s budget, now goes to the House.

Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, the committee chairman, said the $48 million increase for the Public Employees’ Health Insurance Program could help keep employees and retirees from having to pay a significant increase in costs.

PEEHIP faces a $220 million shortfall next year.

The new version of the budget also restores $10 million that was cut from Alabama State University's appropriation in the version of the budget passed by the Senate.

The Republican-dominated committee passed the budget by a vote of 10-4 after rejecting a number of amendments from Democrats.

Rep. Craig Ford, the House minority leader, proposed a 4 percent pay increase for education employees and retirees, but that was rejected.

Gov. Robert Bentley proposed a 2 percent raise for education employees and $72 million in increased funding for PEEHIP. The governor has said he would veto the budget if it leaves those out.

Poole declined to speculate on whether the Legislature would override the governor's veto.

The new version of the budget includes funding to hire about 400 additional middle school teachers, a priority for the Department of Education. The Senate budget had funding for about 200 new teachers.

Alabama has fewer teachers statewide, and more students, than it did before the recession.

The budget would spend:

-- $3.8 billion on the K-12 Foundation Program, an increase of $81 million, 2 percent more than this year.

-- $334 million on the two-year college system, an increase of $10 million, 3 percent more than this year.

-- $1.04 billion on four-year universities, an increase of $13 million, 1 percent more than this year.

The budget would increase funding for the state's voluntary pre-kindergarten program by $10 million, to $38 million. If approved, that would double the program's funding from 2013, when it was $19 million.

Alabama's pre-k program has been recognized for its quality but has not been widely available because of the level of funding.